The
left-wing Rød Valgallianse (Red Electoral Alliance – RV) leadership
has asked 35-year-old teacher, Hans Olav Brendberg, to leave its organisation.
Brendberg sits on the local executive of one of RV’s north Norwegian branches.
RV’s shock
move follows serious accusations about Brendberg’s anti-Jewish statements
on the Internet and in his work as a translator for the Swedish antisemitic
writer, Jöran Jermas.

Brendberg
stirred up controversy after writing articles for the left-wing daily newspaper
Klassekampen in which he charged the Jews with having killed Christ
and with hating all non-Jews.

However,
it is through the KK-forum, Klassekampen’s semi-official web-based
discussion forum, that Brendberg has gained most notoriety for making statements
like: "Millions of nice Germans have always existed – but not one of
them is mentioned in Anne Frank’s Diaries. As for the broader picture: Is
not the world bigger than the attic of a Dutch city apartment block?"

Jewish
breeding-programOn several
occasions, Brendberg has referred to the extreme right-wing American, Kevin
MacDonald, as an authority on Jewish matters. Kevin MacDonald is a white
racist, antisemitic, anti-black, anti-leftist apologist for Hitler’s genocide
and a fascist.

MacDonald,
a professor at an obscure Californian university, is perhaps most infamous
for his claim that the Jews have effected a breeding program to conquer
other "races".

During
the court case that British quasi-historian and Hitler-fan David Irving
brought against Debora Lipstadt, MacDonald testified on Irving’s behalf
and explained his theories.

In
MacDonald’s books, Marxism and the Russian Revolution of October 1917 are
both alleged to be Jewish conspiracies. He also claims that the Jews and
Asians are threatening to take power from the Europeans in the USA and considers
it genetically dangerous to "import Africans".

Brendberg
regards MacDonald’s books as classical, academic work and as being worthy
of decent, critical debate.

"Cease
and desist"There has
also been reaction to Brendberg’s activities within the Arbeidernes Kommunistparti
(Workers Communist – AKP), a group within RV.

A statement
from the AKP’s central board says, among other things, that "Hans Olav
Brendberg has raised discussion in several fora about the Jewish role around
the world. The central board of the AKP considers that his views function
as antisemitism, and promote conspiracy theories about Jews. This is a fundamental
break with the AKP’s views on how economic and class forces drive the world’s
development, be it in the USA, the Middle East and the world at large."

The
statement ends with the party’s central board ordering "Brendberg to
cease, and desist from, these discussions in the public domain."

Jöran
JermasIn Norway,
Brendberg is known for his work as translator for the "Israeli"
writer, Israel Shamir. On his web page, Shamir presents himself as a leading
Russian-Israeli intellectual and as a writer, translator and journalist.

According
to the same web page, Shamir has occupied a string of important positions
as a translator of classical works and has worked as a journalist in several
heavyweight media institutions, including the big Israeli paper, Haaretz.

However,
when Monitor started investigating Shamir’s past last year, it proved
very difficult to verify that Shamir had ever occupied these positions.
His supposed job as Moscow-correspondent for Haaretz turned out to
be just a few freelance articles.

The
Swedish Census Registry, however, does give a few clues about Shamir and
his movements. We know that, according to this register, his name was entered
onto it in October 1984, and that he later obtained Swedish citizenship.

Also
according to the register, Shamir still lives in Dalagatan, Stockholm, not
in Jaffa, Israel, as he publicly claims. Shamir’s first wife and two sons
also live in Stockholm.

In
July 1993, Shamir emigrated to Russia, and later to Israel, where he married
a younger woman in July 1994. During the autumn of 1998, however, he and
his new wife returned to Sweden where, according to public records, he still
lives.

Strange
figureEven though
Shamir claims to be one of Israel’s leading intellectuals, he has lived
in Sweden for a long time but has hidden this fact in his writings.

Another
strange detail about Shamir is that there are hardly any references to him
on the Internet before 2001. What makes this doubly strange is that in 2001,
Shamir changed his name to Jöran Jermas.

A strange
time, indeed, to change his name, Justas he was being noted and just after
starting to publish his works under the name of Israel Shamir.

Though
Brendberg claims that Israel Shamir is an Israeli citizen, and thus cannot
sue people who upset him in Norway, it is well documented that Shamir is
a Swedish citizen, has a completely different name, and has– for long periods
lived in places – other than Jaffa, as he claims.

UFO
conspiraciesWhile Jermas/Shamir)
has chosen Brendberg as his Norwegian errand boy, he has found other and
even more extreme friends in Sweden. One of his Swedish translators, a certain
Lars Adelskog, is not only a leading figure in the Swedish UFO movement
but can also be found in the jungle of conspiracy theories where the Illuminati,
the Freemasons and lizards in human form are supposedly working together
to end civilisation as we know it.

Adelskog’s
last publication was a book with the profound title En tom säck
kan inte stå (An empty bag cannot stand), published by the openly
nazi publisher, Nordiska Förlaget. Nordiska Förlaget also sells
books by the above-mentioned Kevin MacDonald together with books by, among
others, Adolf Hitler and David Irving. In his latest book, Adelskog tries
in typical nazi style to "prove" that the WWII genocide of the
Jews never took place.

Earlier,
this same Adelskog was editor of the Swedish "alternative" magazine
Nexus, where he also spread his pet conspiracy theories. Unsold issues
of Nexus were later touted by the Nationalsocialistisk Front through
its web-store.

Jermas/Shamir
himself is no stranger to conspiracy theories. When he visited Norway in
2001, he made the laughable claim, in the mainstream newspaper Adresseavisa,
that many Jews were warned – by SMS text messages – to get out of the World
Trade Centre in New York before the 9/11 horror attacks.

ZavtraOne other
outlet that eagerly promotes anti-Semitic conspiracy theories is the Russian
magazine Zavtra and its editor, Alexander Prokhanov. While in Moscow Jermas
was working as a journalist for Zavtra, the magazine that has been described
as Russias most anti-Semitic newspaper. When the notorious racist, and former
Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke went to Russia to promote his new book "Jewish
supremacism", and his new organisation National Association for the Advancement
of White People, it was after being invited by Prokhanov.

In
other words, it is an interesting web of national Bolsheviks that slowly
become visible in Europe and the states.

Jöran Jermas is
an eager propagandist. He appears as a friend of the Palestinian people
and claims to be promoting system critics against the state of Israel. Because
of this several of his texts have been quoted in international debates on
the Middle East.

I 2002 was Shamir portrayed
by Tidningarnas Telegrambyrå (The Swedish news agency) in the text,
that was kept to Shamirs own biography, Shamir appears as a serious jou5rnalist
criticising Israel.

However, prominent
representatives for the Palestinians do not share this view.Ali Abunimah,
prominent media critic on the website Electronic Intifada and Hussein Ibish,
press spokesman of American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC), warned
already in 2001 that Shamir appeared as an anti-Semite and not a critic
of Israel. They claimed that his critique of Israel was nothing but classic
elements in the European anti-Semitic tradition.

Ignorance?It is unknown
whether Brandberg is privy to Jermas’ different identities, locations and
contacts. What can be safely stated, however, is that Brendberg reads what
"Shamir" writes, and that, within his texts is material that anyone
would understand as extreme racism and antisemitism.

Brandberg
has consciously chosen to convey this and other politically toxic material
to the Norwegian public, and it is because of this that RV has now, unprecedentedly,
decided to chuck him out.

Teacher
of religionSome have
questioned whether a person that spreads such views on Jews should be allowed
to work as a teacher of religion in the Norwegian state school system.

The
leader of the Norwegian association against Antisemitism, Christine Mohn,
made the right answer crystal clear when asked about her attitude to this
question: "No, definitely not!"